Mother of SWFL teen killed boarding bus pushes for tougher penalties

FORT MYERS, Fla. Sherry Stevens says her son, Cameron, was her best friend.

“We were two peas in a pod,” she said. “I had 12 beautiful years with him. I own that. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Cameron Mayhew, a 16-year-old honor student and nationally recognized academic scholar at Fort Myers High School, was killed last June while trying to board his school bus near the corner of Pine Ridge Road and Bombay Lane.

The teen’s bus was stopped with the red stop sign extended when 23-year-old Zachary Treinen hit him.

However, Treinen didn’t face any charges in Mayhew’s death, receiving only a $1,000 fine and a six-month license suspension.

“When there’s a death involved, the penalty for that is a maximum license suspension and a fine,” said Sawyer Smith, an attorney for the Wilbur Smith Law Firm in Fort Myers.

But Stevens says that’s unacceptable.

State Rep. Dane Eagle and Sen. Kathleen Passidomo are now filing a bill to create harsher penalties for drivers who fail to stop for school buses and result in injury.

“The law needs to change,” Stevens said. “There has to be penalties or consequences for running stopped school buses. These are children’s lives.”

The two state lawmakers filed the bill on March 3 and are awaiting their first hearing.